This invention relates to the interactive provision of selected information at multiple sites and more particularly to a method and apparatus for the asynchronous concurrent provision of requested information at such sites from a central source in response to user initiated information requests.
There are many situations where a person located at any one of a number of remote locations or sites at a particular facility may desire selected information concerning either the site or something located at the site. Examples of such facilities include historical sites where users may desire information concerning what happened at particular locations of the site, museums, art galleries, and in particular retail sales establishments. Therefore, the following discussion will be with respect to a retail sales application; however, it is to be understood that the invention is in no way limited to such application.
In large retail establishments such as department stores or discount merchandisers, the trend is to control costs by maintaining a minimum staff of salespeople. Since this frequently requires that a single salesperson cover several departments, not only is it difficult for a patron to find a salesperson when they wish to obtain information on a particular product, but frequently the salesperson, when located, is not knowledgeable concerning the products, and may either be unable to answer questions or may provide incorrect information.
A need, therefore, exists for an improved way to provide information to customers on products being offered for sale. Such information might include, for example, features of the product, limitations on where and how the product may be used, warranty information, special promotional packages for the product, and the like. Further, while price may generally be easily provided on a tag at the location where the product is located, price changes are not always updated at the product site, and this may be a particular problem when a product is moved from one location to another.
To accomplish the above, an improved system is required to provide information to customers at product locations concerning the particular product. Such system should be interactive so as to permit the customer to obtain the particular information he is seeking and needs to be asynchronous so that the message for each customer will start when the customer makes the request, while permitting large numbers of messages to be simultaneously presented. Such a system should also be relatively low cost, should be easy for a customer to use, should permit setup by unskilled store personnel and should be easy to update so that new messages may be provided if, for example, there is a change in the price or promotional package for a given product.
In addition to providing information to customers, retail establishments are also interested in collecting information concerning customers to assess effectiveness of advertising and promotional campaigns, to determine shelf space allocation, and for other purposes. By keeping track of how many customers have sought information on a particular product, the business can determine, for example, the effectiveness of a particular advertising or promotional campaign for such product. The ratio of information requests for a particular product to sales of the product also provides valuable information. Therefore, it is desirable that any system for providing information to customers on products also have the facility for collecting archival information on such information requests.
While systems have existed in the prior art for providing selected information at remote sites, such systems have generally been of two types. The first type are off-line systems where a tape, wire or the like containing a prerecorded message is located at the site and plays the prerecorded message in response to a user request. Such systems are not interactive and are difficult to update when information changes.
The second type of system, which has heretofore been used primarily in connection with providing, for example, a price display for a product, involves connecting a display at the remote site to a central computer which may send messages addressed to the site with price update information. Systems of this general type are described in a number of issued patents including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,002,886; 4,500,880; and 4,766,295. However, such systems are not interactive, do not have the capability of providing a variety of information messages concerning a product to a customer and do not have the capability of generating and maintaining audit trail information on system use. These systems, therefore, do not either address or overcome the various problems described above which exist at retail establishments.
While the problems described above exist primarily at retail establishments, they may also arise at, for example, an art gallery where patrons may wish information concerning the painter, the style of the art work, the content of the work, the history of the work, or the like, while the gallery wishes to collect information on the popularity of various works and on traffic flow patterns at the gallery. As indicated above, similar problems also exist at museums, historic sites, and the like.
It is, therefore, a primary object of this invention to provide an interactive, asynchronous method and apparatus for concurrently providing desired information at a plurality of remote sites, such information preferably being obtained from a central computer. Another object of the invention is to permit the establishment using the system to obtain audit trail information concerning interest in a particular product or site, traffic pattern, and other useful information.
In accordance with the above, this invention provides a method and apparatus for interactively providing selected site-specific messages asynchronously at a plurality of separate sites. At least one site-specific message is stored in addressable storing means for each site. An output device is located at at least selected ones of the sites and an input device is located at each site. At least one input device is associated with each output device, with there being an input device and an output device at each site in a preferred embodiment. The reading out of a message for a site is initiated when the input device is operated and proceeds concurrently for all such sites at a rate for each site which depends on the rate at which the information is utilized. Each read out message is transmitted to the output device associated with the corresponding operated input device and the read out message is utilized to operate the output device to provide the selected message.
A plurality of site-specific messages may be stored for each site with the message to be read out from the addressable store and provided at the associated output device being selected in response to the operation of the input device. The selecting of the output message may be effected by having the input device be operable in a different way for each site specific message, for example, providing a binary switch which may be operated to indicate the desired message, or a menu of message options may be presented at the output device and the input device for the site selectively operating to select a message from the menu. For a preferred embodiment, the output device is an audio output device such as a speaker with audio messages of the menu being sequentially provided by the speaker. The input device may then be operated at selected times relative to the presentation of the message identifying information to select an identified message.
Where the output device is an audio device such as a speaker, an audio control means may be provided for utilizing the input device for a site to control the audio volume of the associated output device. Such audio control means may include a means for storing an audio volume indicative of each site, for initially setting the volume indication for each site to a predetermined low level, for selectively establishing a volume mode for a given site for incrementally increasing the audio volume of the associated output device when the site is in volume mode and the input device for the site is operating and for updating the means for storing to store an indication of the audio volume at the output device when operation of the input device terminates. Once the audio volume has been set, normal operation of the input device causes the audio volume of the corresponding output device to be set at a volume corresponding to the indication stored for the output device. More generally, a means may be provided for storing an indication of a desired output level for each output device, with the operation of the corresponding input device setting the corresponding output device to the indicated output level.
For a preferred embodiment, a memory is provided for storing selected message segments for each site, the memory being loaded from the addressable store with additional message segments for the site when at least a predetermined percentage of the memory means for the site is empty. For a preferred embodiment, the predetermined percentage is approximately 50%. A first and second buffer may also be provided, each buffer being adapted to store a message portion which is shorter than the selected message segment for each site. One of the buffers is loaded from the memory means while the other buffer is utilized to read out messages to the output means. To facilitate rapid initial response, the same initial message portion is loaded into both the first and second buffers for at least selected sites during initialization for the site.
A means may be provided for storing selected information concerning sites in a map, for initially loading information into the map for selected sites and for updating the map with current information concerning each site. The information in the map may include one or more of an address in the addressable store at which the next message or message portion to be read out is stored, a mode in which the site is currently operating and a desired output level for the output device located at the site. Selected audit information concerning operation of input devices and/or other matters may also be stored and may be selectively outputted, for example in response to a request for such information.
A site may also be placed in a message select mode during which an indication of available messages may be outputted by the output device for the site. Operation of the input device for the site at a selected time relative to a given message indication at the site output device causes the designation of the message in the addressable store as the site specific message for the site. This may be accomplished by physically storing the message at an address for the site or by storing a pointer to the message in a site register. Where there may be more than one level of menu indications for a site, the operation of the input device for the site during a given message indication of a first level causes outputting of message indications of a second level which correspond to the given first level message indication.